Pubdate: Tue, 02 Aug 2005
Source: St. Augustine Record (FL)
Copyright: 2005 The St. Augustine Record
Contact:  http://www.staugustine.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/771
Author: John Chase

LET'S STAMP OUT DRUG PROHIBITION

Editor: The feds are not serious about stamping out marijuana. Their
object lesson is Mabel Walker Willibrandt, the Assistant Attorney
General of the U.S., whose primary job was the enforcement of National
Prohibition (of alcohol) from 1921 to 1928.

In her 1929 book, "The Inside of Prohibition" Willibrandt bragged how
she got the Coast Guard to blockade Florida's lower coasts; an area
she called "rum row". It was a great success; it drove the price of a
case of liquor in Miami up from $35 to $125. The profits became so
great that more reckless, violent men became bootleggers. Ultimately
it caused a public backlash, and three years later American voters
decided to take the feds out and let the states decide how to regulate
alcohol.

The feds know they must appear to be fighting drugs, but that too much
success might put them out of work. We Americans should not hold our
breath waiting for success. We should do for "drugs" today what our
grandparents did for alcohol in 1932.

John Chase

Palm Harbor
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin